Conservatives Want 100 Mbps Broadband in Most Homes by 2017

100 Mbps broadband might be commonplace in mainland Europe, but in the UK, outside of privately funded networks and university and work, there?s very little chance to get a connection that fast. Even the current rollout of next generation services from BT will only offer speeds of up to 40 Mbps initially, rising to 60 Mbps in the future. The current fastest commercially available service in the UK is the 50 Mbps service provided by Virgin Media in selective areas.

The conservatives have stated their intention that 100 Mbps will be available to most homes by 2017. It?s a similar pledge to Labour which aims to bring next generation services to 90% of homes within a similar time frame, but it?s inclusion of a solid goal on the actual speed makes it all the more exciting. Even more, the conservatives plan to fund the investment using the BBC licence free rather than the 50p broadband tax.

Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne talked about their broadband plans on the BBC this week:

?You know, you look at countries like South Korea, Singapore – they are way ahead of us, and they seizing this new technology. So the next Conservative government is going to aim to have a 100 megabit Broadband to a majority of the population by 2017.

In the 19th century we built the railways; in the 20th century we built the motorways. In the 21st century, let’s build the super-fast Broadband network. That will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for Britain.?

Currently 3.5% of the BBC licence is being used to fund the digital televisions switchover. The plan would be to use this case to fund the rollout in rural areas relying on the private sector to develop the broadband structure of towns and cities. The party has also mentioned that reducing the fibre tax could also be a good way to fund investment in next gen broadband, something that?s infinitely more palatable to many consumers than just taxing them.

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